By Julia Borcherts
In the early 1980s, as the federal government largely ignored the AIDS crisis that was beginning to explode across America, New York textile designer Patricia Green and Stendig International Vice President Larry Pond (who died from AIDS-related complications in 1992) became alarmed that colleagues were getting sick and dying all around them. No one seemed to be paying attention. So in April, 1984, they formed what was originally called the Design and Interior Furnishings Foundation for AIDS (which in 1994 became the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS), better known as DIFFA, to help out.
"When we started in 1984, we were truly so grass-roots," said David Sheppard, who began working as a DIFFA volunteer that year in Atlanta and became the executive director of DIFFA National in 1995. "People would get together in showrooms after work and literally pass a hat to pay for someone's cab fare to the doctor or their [electric] bill. It was friends helping friends, reallythe design industry was hit very hard, very fast."
As the epidemic escalated, the volunteers recruited associates in all fields of fine design and the visual arts, including architecture, fashion design, interior design, photography and consumer product design. They also realized that it was necessary to become more organized, so they established a set of bylaws and a missionto benefit programs which provide direct care and preventive education in HIV and AIDS. They hired their first employee, who initially worked out of the Interiors Magazine office, sitting at whichever desk happened to be empty each day based on who didn't show up for work. Not long after, DIFFA was loaned a windowless basement office from which to operate. In 1985, they made their first official grant to God's Love We Deliver, an association which distributes food to people living with AIDS.
In the 27 years since it began, DIFFAthrough its national headquarters in Manhattan and chapters across the countryhas granted more than $38 million to such entities as the African Services Committee and Bailey House in New York, the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the Boston Living Center, the Heartland Camp for children of parents with AIDS in Minneapolis and the Chicken Soup Brigade in Greater Seattle.
In Chicago, some of DIFFA's most significant grantmaking has happened. Funds have gone to, among others, Howard Brown Health Center, the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, Horizon Hospice, the Center on Halsted, the Greater Humboldt Community of Wellness, The Children's Place Association, and a fellowship program with Northwestern University.
According to Sheppard, DIFFA has ranked in the top 25 providers of domestic funding for HIV and AIDS every year since the mid-2000s in national surveys conducted by Funders Concerned About AIDS.
"But that sounds better than it really is, because at the top of that list is Bill and Melinda Gates and the Rockefeller Foundationand then there's a big drop," he said with a laugh. "And the Ford Foundation, which came on board even before Bill and Melinda. The epidemic would be in a terrible, terrible state without the Ford Foundation."
What sets DIFFA apart is that it doesn't compete with the programs it serves for philanthropic dollars from those major funders. Instead, DIFFA seeks corporations' marketing dollars by capitalizing on the talents of design industry professionals to produce glamorous events including Dining by Design, a celebrity-studded affair featuring dozens of installations created by major designers which debuts annually in New York and then travels to cities across the country, including Chicago. But each chapter also hosts its own signature events.
"In Dallas, for years and years, they've done an event called Collection, where designers take just plain old denim jackets and turn them into these fantasies that can be as crazy as Lady Gaga or as elegant as Dorothy Lamour," said Sheppard. "In Kansas City, they do Holidays by Design, which is a big event, and Gardens by Design. And Chicago's annual gala is always just breathtaking. It's different every year and you just never know what you're going to see when you walk through those doors."
Sheppard believes that DIFFA's strategic partner initiatives result in dollars that would not otherwise be raised and that this fundraising approach has been successful for two reasons: A) corporations typically have more money in their marketing budgets than in their philanthropic budgets; and B) at a DIFFA event, the corporations get something in return for their marketing-dollar investments.
"For instance, the DIFFA Chicago ball is the day before NeoCon opens," he said, referring to North America's largest design exposition, which takes place annually at the Merchandise Mart. "So a lot of people come to network. In the process, they learn something about HIV and AIDS … and we cash their checks. A win-win is perfectly fine with us."
Another factor that sets DIFFA apart from many traditional funders is its willingness to subsidize a non-profit organization's operating expenses.
"I don't know why funders don't realize that somebody's got to pay the light bill and the phone billit's as if somehow, they're supposed to operate in a dream-like state. But our board and our supporters are made up of business people, so they understand. We're very careful about making sure that the organization is being run efficiently and so forth, but we will fund things other than just programs or specific care."
Each chapter raises money to distribute in its own region, while DIFFA National holds fundraisers to benefit programs in New York. But DIFFA National also acts as a parent organization, managing insurance and workers' compensation coverage, annual audits and other duties that the regional chapters, many with only a volunteer staff, don't have time to handle. The chapters each pay a program fee to the foundation to help offset costs.
DIFFA National has final approval over each chapter's grantmaking selections, although Sheppard said that's basically just a technicality. More important, he believes, is the foundation's role as a resource for the regional chapters, as well as acting as a clearinghouse for best practices by developing a Dining by Design training manual, hosting a "boot camp" for chapter directors to share new ideas and help avoid past mistakes and other initiatives including creating national sponsorships to help bring top design industry names to local chapters for their events.
"For Dallas' denim jacket event, we'll ask someone like Ralph Lauren to do one and send it to be auctioned there, because we have those relationships," Sheppard said. "We also got Ralph Lauren to do a table for Chicago last year for their Dining by Design. And we have several chapters that do holiday events, so we'll go to four or five big names and say, 'Will you do five?'because they've got some staff person in the back that can just duplicate it. And we'll send one to each city."
DIFFA National has also made a commitment to the next generation by partnering design industry students in New York with a professor at their college and a mentor from an industry leader such as Gensler and Associates, a prominent global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Chicago, New York, Shanghai, London, Dubai and other cities. DIFFA then gives the students small stipends with which to create installations for Dining by Design.
"I have to tell you that some of the student installations, the press loves the most," Sheppard said. "Because they have so little money to work with, they're enormously creative. The American Society of Interior Designers chose one of the student installations as 'Best in Show' here in New York."
Encouraged by the program's success and hoping to seed similar programs in regional chapters, DIFFAin one of its few appeals for philanthropic dollarsapplied to a scholarship fund established through the estate of Angelo Donghia, who became, in 1985, one of the first nationally prominent designers to die of AIDS complications. The Donghia Foundation agreed to underwrite the costs to mentor student designers in two cities per year for the next three years, working with different cities each time, after which each chapter is on its own to continue the program if they choose.
"We told them that we thought that New York and Chicago were the best places to start and they agreed," said Sheppard. "So Chicago gets the benefit of that this year." To that end, DIFFA National special events director Peggy Bellar flew to Chicago in May to meet with five local design schools to begin implementing the initiative for Chicago's Dining by Design event in November.
DIFFA National also assists HIV/AIDS-related organizations in communities that don't have regional chapterssuch as Detroitto host Dining by Design events in those cities. While DIFFA officially raised approximately $1.25 million in 2010, Sheppard estimates that an additional half-million was raised in regions that don't have DIFFA chapters, so the funds raisedand the subsequent grantsaren't reflected on DIFFA's books. "We feel if we've got an asset that can raise money for a community and they've proved to us that they can do it at the standards that our sponsors expect, then why not?" he said.
As DIFFA moves forward, they've hired an independent consultant to help determine the organization's best role for the future.
"Our mission has always remained the same," Sheppard said, "but in the early years, most of our money went to direct care because the government had not at that point picked up its share of that responsibility. Now that the government has picked up a significant part of direct care, almost all of our money goes to preventive education.
"But the epidemic is changing dramatically. We've got a significant population that's aging, living with HIV and AIDS, which we never anticipated. And so now we're looking to see if we should expand our mission to include specific areas like that or even including other life-threatening illnesses that might better reflect the varied interests of this very diverse design industry. Some have suggested that broadening or better defining our mission might make it possible for us to raise even more money and continue the levels of support that we have done for years. But HIV and AIDS are always going to be at the forefront of what we do."
The next fundraiser on the schedule is DIFFA Chicago's "Believe 2011 RocknGala," which takes place June 11 and is hosted by the Chicago Downtown Marriott at 540 N. Michigan Ave. The suggested attire is "creative black tie" or "rock star chic." Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. with a cocktail party featuring a raffle for an Infiniti G37 convertible, live and silent auctions for rock-themed travel packages and guitars signed by Slash of Guns N' Roses. Stephanie Castagnier from Season Seven of NBC-TV's The Apprentice will share the story of her fight against HIV/AIDS, which killed her parents. An 8 p.m. dinner follows. Tickets cost $500 and include an after-party, but if that's beyond your budget, you can buy a $75 ticket for the after-party only, which begins at 9:30 p.m. and features a performance by Evan Dando and The Lemonheads, an open bar, desserts and dancing till 2 a.m. to beats by DJ Jesse De La Pena.
Tickets for both options are available at the DIFFA Chicago website: www.diffachicago.org/believe/